


Intertwined

by inkfiction



Category: Incarceron Series - Catherine Fisher
Genre: Archiving previous works, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-24
Updated: 2011-10-24
Packaged: 2019-02-08 02:31:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 1,695
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12854838
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inkfiction/pseuds/inkfiction
Summary: Nine different drabbles from Incarceron Series.





	1. Hope

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted in 2011. The idea was to take three random lyrics from the middle of some songs and write ten lines + one grace line allowed (on your notebook, mercifully, so I could cheat a little bit ;p) drabbles on one pairing of your choosing. What comes before or after the lyrics, or what song they are from is none of your concern. You just have to write what you understood or felt from the three lines provided.
> 
> But I do have to say THIS is one of the most difficult things I’ve written. I’m pretty sure these drabbles are absolutely crappy but I’m still proud as hell cause this really took a lot of effort to write. The characters, the demands of the lyrics were totally out of my comfort zone. I hadn’t even finished the book yet, had the vaguest idea of the characters’ personalities. The good thing is Keiro and Attia are pretty strong characters (props to Catherine Fisher, she owns it all) by themselves. Their personalities are very distinctive. I just hope I somewhat managed to do justice to them. Feedback (any kind) will be loved. And if you haven’t read Incarceron and Sapphique yet I would 100% recommend it.
> 
> Minor edits. The lyrics are all from Sara Bareilles songs.

> _**1\. Hope  
>  (POV: Keiro)** _
> 
> _**Feel the fire burning** _   
>  _**inspire me with blood** _   
>  _**of blue and green; I have hope** _

He hasn’t had a privileged upbringing, is jaded beyond his years, and when he looks at Attia’s enthusiasm at the beginning of every new day, every new adventure, at every new sight they get to see, it’s beyond irritating. And the adoring, worshipful way with which she looks at Finn makes him want to throw up. He cannot understand what brought it about; surely he, Keiro, was much more handsome than Finn? But, he tells himself, what would a dog-slave know?

What he knows deep inside, what he isn’t ready to face, but what he himself believes in, is what Finn represents to them both: _Hope_.


	2. Faded Colors

> **_2\. Faded Colors  
>  (POV: Attia)_ **
> 
> **_Jump start, my kaleidoscope heart,_ **  
>  **_love to watch the colors fade._ **  
>  **_They may not make sense, but they sure as hell made me_ **

Born into a poorer community in a hellhole of a prison, where the apex of her life so far was to become the dog-slave, food-taster to Scum like Jormanric, Attia hasn’t had much experience of finer things in life. Even now, her wrists ankles and neck are still sore from the chains, her ribs still ache from the kicks she received, her hair hasn’t grown back enough to cover her gaunt face. She still can’t sleep without having nightmares, still has Scum like Keiro around her to remind her of the bad times.

But the thing is, she’s stronger now, more ready to face everything that comes. The worst came, and it didn’t kill her. It made her what she is now, and left her prepared for even worse.


	3. Maybe

> _**3\. Maybe  
>  (POV: Attia)** _
> 
> _**Maybe is a vicious little word that can slay me,** _  
>  _**keep me when I’m hurting and make me** _  
>  _**hang from your hands.** _

Attia looks at Keiro’s handsome profile and sighs. “Finn trusts him,” that’s the mantra that has kept her going, so far, and stopped her from doing something to him.

“Oath brothers don’t leave each other, me and Finn, we’ve got each other’s back,” is what Keiro’s always saying.

Maybe he’s right, but ‘maybe’ is a double-edged sword, cuts both ways. So maybe what he says is a load of bullshit, maybe he plans to steal the Key and abandon them at the earliest chance he can get. She had been half-scared to death in the city, and she knows she would have killed Keiro if he hadn’t gone to rescue Finn.

And living constantly with the feeling of betrayal dormant in those blue eyes in that handsome face is tiring. Attia feels like a puppet hanging from Keiro’s hands, with strings he can snap any time.

“Finn trusts him. Maybe he’s right.”


	4. The Truth

> _**4\. The Truth  
>  (I think it’ll fit where Blaize saves them from the monster and brings them to his tower.)** _
> 
> _**The truth is you’ve been hiding from it, too.** _  
>  _**I see the end sneaking in behind your eyes,** _  
>  _**saying everything no words could ever do.** _

He had come to check on Finn and found Attia sitting on the floor by his bed. It pissed him off.

“Don’t you ever leave him alone? What do you think I’d do, stab him in his sleep?”

Her look was full of scorn. “I wouldn’t put it past you.”

Keiro’s face twisted in anger. “He’s my brother! I would never-”

“Please!” Attia cut him off as she stood up. “As if I don’t know, you would have left him in that cave to die if Claudia hadn’t-”

“Of course I wouldn’t!” he scoffed. “Oath brothers watch each other’s back, and anyway, what would you know? A dog-slave!”

A shadow passed over Attia’s face. “I know enough,” she said, her voice quiet. “Enough about Scum like you. It’s in your eyes, you don’t have to say anything. It is there when you look at Finn, all you see is opportunity. And your own benefit!”

Keiro gave her a seething look, turned and stomped out of the room.


	5. The Decision

> **_5\. The Decision  
>  (This one fits more at the end of the first book and before the start of Sapphique.)_ **
> 
> **_All my life I’ve tried to make everyone happy_ **  
>  **_while I just hurt and hide,_ **  
>  **_waiting for someone to tell me it’s my turn to decide_ **

The three days she waited for Finn in that hellhole of a room had been the most difficult. When she had finally gotten up from her unfulfilled vigil, it had been heartache, more than hunger or thirst, which had made her sick and throw up. The pain had been almost physical, making her double up. And then it had been her anger at Finn’s betrayal, and how he had broken the blind trust she had in him, that had given her the strength to move ahead and out.

Back into Incarceron’s landscapes, the little red eyes watched her, seemed to mock her with their crimson, unblinking gaze. The air was full of the prison’s mocking laughter, a monster’s stale breath.

She stumbled into the first village she could reach, and into the inn. She found Keiro seated at a table as if expecting her. As she sat down in the chair across from his, he pushed some black bread and sour beer at her, a smirk on his face.

“Decided, have you? Giving up on my brother?”

Attia just nodded and attacked the food.


	6. Sorry for You

> **_6\. Sorry for You  
>  (POV: evil!Keiro — Just tried to make him be a little OOC, although not much work was needed to make him look evil. But c'mon, I like Keiro, the arrogant bastard!)_ **
> 
> **_You’re so good at giving me responsibility._ **  
>  **_I wash my hands clean and let you watch me as I go._ **  
>  **_I’m sorry for you, just so you know._ **

If the girl had been even a little sensible, shown the slightest sign of being impressed by him, he’d take her with him when he finally decided to leave. Jormanric’s parting words to Finn about the Maestra were unfortunate, they planted seeds of doubt in Finn’s mind, and Keiro was sure soon Finn would take him to task again, and he wanted to take the Key and leave before that happened.

And he would have taken Attia with him, she’d make a great cover story, but she was so good at blaming and scorning him, Keiro didn’t think she’d be amenable to his plans. Also, she worshipped the ground Finn treaded.

Well, he felt sorry for her. She didn’t know what she was going to miss.


	7. Beautiful Mess

> _**7\. Beautiful Mess  
>  (This one is by far my favorite one, I don’t even know why! I guess it’s probably because I love Keiro and Attia together.)** _
> 
> _**You were the air in my breath,** _   
>  _**filling up my love-soaked lungs.** _   
>  _**Such a beautiful mess, intertwined and overrun.** _

During the day his anger and arrogance shines bright enough to eclipse every other feeling and emotion that he might have, and she’s as hard as nails, safe and lonely behind her armor.

But during the tired, dark nights, after long days of wandering, sometimes, when the hurt and pain of Finn’s betrayal gets too much, when they lie side by side late at night, awake, staring at the pitch-black, starless sky of Incarceron, she turns to him and he wraps his arms around her.

And in the cold, ruthless darkness of lightsout, they comfort each other, the halfman and the dog-girl.

And afterwards, when she lets a few tears slip, her head buried in his chest, he lets her, holds her tighter, closer, even. And she lets herself sleep, held like that. They both know that in the morning they’ll be back to being angry, arrogant Keiro and bitter, watchful Attia, and pretend this didn’t happen.

But for those few hours in the dark night they hold each other, and that somehow seems enough.


	8. Enough

> _**8\. Enough  
>  (Actually this one’s more about Attia and Finn.)** _
> 
> _**I want to darken in the skies, open the floodgates up.** _  
>  _**I want to change my mind, I want to be enough.** _  
>  _**I want the water in my eyes, I want to cry till the end of time.** _

She sees the way the lights in Finn’s eyes change every time he talks to Claudia, every time his eyes meet Claudia’s over the holoscreen’s flickering light, and she feels like snatching the Key and stomping over it, breaking it into pieces.

But she would never. For her it is enough to be with Finn, around Finn, and what she really wants is to be enough for him, too. When she sees him hurting, suffocating, she wants to rise up like a storm, break through the dark skies of Incarceron and take him Outside. She wants to take all his pain, save him from Scum like Keiro, insane opportunists like Gildas.

And take him away some place where the soft glow of Claudia’s eyes cannot follow them.


	9. Cursed

> _**9\. Cursed  
>  (I really like this one. The first part is from Attia’s POV and the second one from Keiro’s.)** _
> 
> _**Tell me off in a letter, completely ignore me.** _   
>  _**Getting high off of saying “why don’t you adore me?”** _   
>  _**Baby, please, I’m well-versed in how I might be cursed.** _

His presence is a constant thorn in her heart, making discontent run through her veins. She finds his handsomeness sickening: the golden hair, the blue eyes, the unblemished body - for her it’s like a beautiful mask beneath which lurks a monster, a usurper, ready to bite the very hand that was kind to it. He is like a constant threat she has to keep watching, keep her eyes open, be ready.

Her presence is like a bitter taste in his mouth which just doesn’t go away however much he washes it. He’s aware of her thoughts, knows that in her opinion he’s the worst kind of human being there is, but, really, the thing is he’s the best amongst all Comitatus in prison. He beat Jormanric, didn’t he? So okay, he couldn’t have done it without her (he’s not going to admit that to her, though). The thing is he knows he’s cursed Scum, and is proud of it.


End file.
